A far bigger concern is that the sensors were likely outsourced to a third party, the requirements were poorly translated, the code is lousy, the testing was subpar, and everyone involved has already left the company for a higher paying job.

As someone who works in the electronics manufacturing industry this is Grade A stupid.

We deal with ITAR shiat all the time. The government give you a giant list of things that are ITAR and/or UCNI controlled, things that require date/lot control so you can trace every single part on each board back to where it got made;loads of rules and regulations in order to not introduce counterfeit bullshiat into the supply chain, profit off conflict minerals from central Africa, or teach China/Iran etc how to make your sweet missiles. You follow the rules for those things or you go to jail. Its not a particularly difficult thing to follow. Is the shiat i'm working with on the list? if the answer is yes, you don't send it outside the US without a permission slip signed in triplicate to cover your ass. Do you think some things on the list are silly? Yes. Do you follow the law anyway because its the law? Yes.

Doktor_Zhivago:As someone who works in the electronics manufacturing industry this is Grade A stupid.

We deal with ITAR shiat all the time. The government give you a giant list of things that are ITAR and/or UCNI controlled, things that require date/lot control so you can trace every single part on each board back to where it got made;loads of rules and regulations in order to not introduce counterfeit bullshiat into the supply chain, profit off conflict minerals from central Africa, or teach China/Iran etc how to make your sweet missiles. You follow the rules for those things or you go to jail. Its not a particularly difficult thing to follow. Is the shiat i'm working with on the list? if the answer is yes, you don't send it outside the US without a permission slip signed in triplicate to cover your ass. Do you think some things on the list are silly? Yes. Do you follow the law anyway because its the law? Yes.

A bunch of geniuses at Honeywell there. Geniuses.

Well - in all fairness, they certainly bought the right people, or the waivers wouldn't have been granted. It's not their fault if someone decided to go after Pentagon and they got caught in the crossfire. You can't predict that.

Sounds like stupid supply chain management to me.It also sounds like a stupidly-broad application of a law intended to protect US manufacturing interests. Of course, these jets are costing MUCH more than promised, I think the cost of the entire program is now nearly twice the original estimate. And the point of the entire program was to reduce costs and keep production and budget in line.

I'm surprised that the US government has not kicked Lockheed out the door and told Boeing that we want to use their design instead. Boeing may have problems (like with the 787), but at least they can deliver airplanes

So, they moved the plant from Scotland to China, and now that they're using these sensors in a war jet they're moving the plant to the USA. How very traNSpArent. File this under the Politics tab (at least as submitted. And subby gets a -5 Cursed Headline of Deficiencies!}